Olbermann Can't Resist Debunking Bill O'Reillys Athletic Career Again: "I still own your head, Bill"

[kpete]

Olbermann devoted most of the segment to fact-checking O'Reilly's accounts of his amateur athletic career. During the awkward radio interview, host Dan Le Batard brought up Olbermann's revelation in 2005 that O'Reilly only played club football at Marist College. As Olbermann pointed out, Marist didn't even institute a varsity football program until well after O'Reilly attended the school. O'Reilly dismissed the question, telling Le Batard that it "was varsity football in the sense" that Marist competed against other schools.

Olbermann couldn't hide his glee. "I still own your head, Bill," he said.

***********

Detailing his baseball career, O'Reilly told Le Batard about the time the New York Mets brought him in for a tryout. While at the now-leveled Shea Stadium, O'Reilly recalled brushing shoulders with another pitcher who was about 5-foot-10 and "threw twice as hard as me." The pitcher turned out to be Hall of Famer Tom Seaver.

Olbermann, a baseball maven, took an axe to O'Reilly story, noting that he got the 6-foot-1 Seaver's height wrong. But the more egregious error, according to Olbermann, came with O'Reilly's timeline of the events.

Seaver’s rookie year was 1967, when Bill O’Reilly had just turned 18. In his biography, O’Reilly put the alleged Met tryout in his senior year of college, 1970 or ’71, by which point the Mets had already won the World Series, and Seaver had won the Cy Young Award. The only part of this story he hasn’t changed was that he — ‘lifelong Met fan’ — did not recognize Tom Seaver.

O'Reilly eventually hung up on Le Batard after swatting away a series of questions about a "controversy" that may have "embarrassed" him and caused "turbulence."


VIDEO & MORE:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/keith-olbermann-fact-checks-bill-oreilly-baseball-mets-tom-seaver

[niyad]

1. I miss KO

[pennylane100]

2. ME TOO

[pennylane100]

4. Which brings up something I have been tihinking about for sometime.

If we started petition to one of the cable news shows (fox is not a news show so do not worry we don't have to include it) to get Olbermann back on the air, does anyone think it would do any good.

[jeff47]

6. The people running the networks do not want him

Petition all you want, the people running the networks do not want him talking about politics.

And given the demographics of people who currently watch "News" channels, that's not an entirely unfounded position. TV is selling a product - viewer eyeballs are being sold to advertisers.

Most of the people Olbermann could attract do not currently watch news channels, and likely would not change that behavior due only to Olbermann. Which means they wouldn't see the ads, and thus not bring in revenue. Sure, it's possible Olbermann could reverse that trend, but even when he was on MSNBC he wasn't getting "the demo" anywhere near as well as The Daily Show.

The old business model of TV is dying off, and no one has any idea what to do about it. So TV executives are going to keep clinging to things that used to work, and people who still watch TV regularly, out of desperation. Olbermann doesn't fit well in that situation.

Eventually, something new will arise from the wreckage to take TV's place. But we don't know what that is yet. Current leader is content over the Internet, but that isn't generating anywhere near the money that TV is still making, probably because companies vastly overrate the ROI on TV advertising while Internet streaming lets you see if the ads really work.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

9. "The old business model of TV is dying off, and no one has any idea what to do about it."

That's because they don't have any problem giving Conservatives a platform but they are TERRIFIED of even TRYING to give a Liberal a platform. Oh sure, they'll give one a show on a trial basis but their BOSS is the "sensible one" who ISN'T a "loon".

[jeff47]

15. No, the people who would watch that are much less likely to watch TV.

They've catered to the right for so long that the "opposite" side has moved on to other media.

For example, to get me to watch MSNBC, you first have to convince me to get cable TV. One show isn't going to do that. Heck, it's unlikely that an entire 24/7 network would convince me to do that unless it was particularly good. So they're not going to be able to sell me to advertisers, which means no money.

TV executives have lost a generation or two. Getting them back is not as simple as a liberal news channel.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

16. It would be hard to sell Oprah as a new show to today's TV execs despite there being an audience....

They're motivated by their corporate masters.

[jen63]

5. He was the highlight of my evenings

on MSNBC. I do so miss him, and wish someone would bring him back into the world of actual politics. I don't care about his ego and controversy with management, he is a brilliant political commentator and we need his voice. I do like Rachael also, but I believe she hesitates to stir, due to management. Free Speech TV or Link needs to bring the liberals on board, so they can tell us what they really know and think.

[Mike Nelson]

3. That Bill-O has a political show on TV...

...but not Keith O is so wrong.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

7. Is there any fantasy that hasn't intruded on O'Reilly's reality?

Next we'll be hearing about how he saved his entire climbing team on Mt. Everest and carried them down the mountain to safety, one at a time.

[kairos12]

8. Keith was a bright light in the darkest of the Shrub's years.

[mainstreetonce]

10. o'Reilly believes he tells the truth

I think O'Reilly's problem is that he really believes his stories. He believes he was in the .Falklands. He believes he was a varsity player. That is why he gets so angry when his stories are questioned.
He's got OJ Simpson syndrome.

[RedSpartan]

11. Well...

[dilby]

12. I was really bummed to read Olbermann was suspended from ESPN today.

The guy is so good in so many ways and he had to know those Penn State tweets would come back and bite him in the ass.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

13. pseudologia fantastica. confabulation. lifetime pattern. psychological motivations.

In psychiatry, pathological lying (also called compulsive lying, pseudologia fantastica and mythomania) is a behavior of habitual or compulsive lying.[1][2] It was first described in the medical literature in 1891 by Anton Delbrueck.[2] Although it is a controversial topic,[2] pathological lying has been defined as "falsification entirely disproportionate to any discernible end in view, may be extensive and very complicated, and may manifest over a period of years or even a lifetime".[1] The individual may be aware they are lying, or may believe they are telling the truth, being unaware that they are relating fantasies.
--Wikipedia

[Initech]

14. Oh I can't wait for O'Reilly's response.

[Brigid]

17. Oh, how I miss KO.

Wasn't Billo the record holder for the most times as KO's "Worst Person in the World"?